GASSNOVA HEAD FLOATS POSSIBILITY OF DOE-MONGSTAD PARTNERSHIP

Tamar Hallerman
GHG Monitor
2/8/13

Officials from the Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) program and the operators of the Norwegian carbon capture test center at Mongstad are in early talks to develop some sort of testing partnership, according to Gassnova’s top official. Tore Amundsen, CEO of Gassnova, the Norwegian government’s CCS RD&D arm, said he recently discussed the possibility of partnering with ARPA-E with program officials from DOE. Amundsen, who is also chairman of CO2 Technology Centre Mongstad (TCM), said the two groups have discussed the idea of some ARPA-E grant recipients testing their carbon capture technologies at TCM’s facility once their technologies are ready for scale-up. “TCM has established a very good and interesting connection with ARPA-E,” he said in an interview. “We do have discussions with ARPA-E to … broaden our connection into a possible cooperation with projects that ARPA is supporting, which is very interesting for us because there are number of interesting projects under development.”

ARPA-E has to date spent more than $60 million to date on “high-risk, high-reward” carbon capture technologies under its Innovative Materials and Processes for Advanced Carbon Capture Technologies (IMPACCT) program. But most of those technologies, which tend to be focused on post-combustion capture, are currently at the lab- or small-scale. Some of those capture “technologies need to be tested at larger scales eventually, and TCM could be a very suitable place to do that,” Amundsen said. “ARPA-E wanted to start discussions with us about this to find out how it could be accomplished.” A DOE official, though, would not comment this week on the potential cooperation. “ARPA-E does not have any formal agreements in place with TCM,” the official said.

IMPACCT’s main goal is to provide seed money to “de-risk” capture technologies, eventually handing off knowledge to DOE’s Office of Fossil Energy or the private sector. The program also aims to lower the cost and energy penalties associated with carbon capture. In November, ARPA-E distributed more than $10 million to four carbon capture technology development projects as part of its newest round of funding. Meanwhile, the $1 billion TCM has made waves in the CCS community since it came online on Norway’s western coast in May. The facility is currently testing Alstom’s chilled ammonia capture technology and one of Aker Clean Carbon’s amine solvents at its two testing slots. However, the facility has an empty third slot, and Gassnova has recently been searching for companies to commit to build there. Last week, the group announced an international consortium of carbon capture test centers to help share knowledge and operating experience in the field.